LA FOLIE Polk near Union, SF
We got to the restaurant at around 10 after 6 and
got the valet to park the car ($5 put on the bill, plus $2 tip later).
Upon looking at the menu outside, I almost had a heart attack before I
realized I wasn't paying. ;-) The soups were about $10.50 average, the
appetizers around $15 and up, and the entrees were averaging $34.
Desserts were all $9.
XXX arrived around 6:30 and we entered the
restaurant, which was maybe 30 ft. by 30 ft. ??? The motif was French
Punch and Judy. There were faux picture frames with 18" tall puppets
that the co-owner told us were from Lyon from the time of the
Revolution. There was a soldier puppet, peasant puppets.. Marie
Antoinette would have liked them at her peasant village at Versailles, I
guess. At the back was a big copper things that was over the kitchen,
and under the copper was a semi-transparent harlequin designed plastic
window thing that you could see through to the kitchen.
The lighting was different. There were some big fixtures that were
about 2 ft. in diameter made with a lot of copper (lot of copper in this
restaurant). Then above us were two wires with little spot lights.
There were other copper, I think, spot lights near the back part of the
place.
The tables and chairs were quite plain, and there were white
tablecloths on the tables. By the time we left the place was very full-
maybe 60 people???
When we entered the woman greeter was a larger, XXX clone.
The waiter she turned us over to was quite gay, and pretty good. We all
ordered drinks, and I got a '95 Merlot from Sonoma county that was quite
good.
We all noted how outrageous the prices were.
XXX chose a goat cheese tatin, filet mignon, and for dessert something that
came with apple soup. He was quite happy with his meal. There was a
choice of 3 breads, one of which looked suspiciously like an Acme sour
dough baguette.
XXX went with just the lobster fricasse, which was served in a little
5 in. diameter hollowed out pumpkin. It was quite an impressive
presentation. When asked how she liked the lobster, she replied, "It's
OK." It was $42. For dessert she had a selection of sorbets that looked
very artistic. There was a waffle cone which she put a berry sorbet in
and ate like an ice cream cone.
XXX just had the $42 lobster and some berry dessert with ice cream
that he didn't eat a whole lot of.
XXX had the goat cheese tatin, which I tried. It was excellent and
looked terrific. The goat cheese was kind of souffle like, and was on
top of some stuff- maybe some red pepper.. on the bottom was shitake
mushroom, I think. For entree she had sea bass from somewhere exotic-
Rhode Island or something... I tried that and it wasn't anything to
write home about. The presentation of that, and of everything ,was very
impressive. She had coffee and no dessert.
I had asparagus soup with sea scallop. They brought a big bowl with a
cover on it and took the cover off to expose the one big scallop which
was probably mousseline or something- ground up scallop mixed with other
stuff- cream maybe? Then the waiter brought a copper thing with the
green asparagus soup in it and poured it over the scallop. Very
impressive. It tasted pretty good. 8 for presentation, 6 for taste.
My entre was Atlantic salmon. It was very beautifully served. about
7 inches long and about an inch wide, it was served on a circle of
pureed Maui onions and a concentric circle ?? of some brown sauce
surrounded the greyish onion circle. Some green drops of something or
other was on the brown sauce. It tasted very good. Presentation 9,
taste 8. It was served with a little copper sauce pan with sauteed
veggies in it.
For dessert I had "Le Chocolat" that
consisted of two balls of some baked or fried pastry with Guanaca or
some such word melted chocolate. There was some orange sauce with
chocolate geometric designs in it, and in the middle between the two
balls a scoop of Grand
Marnier ice cream with a chocolate curlicue on top. Very impressive
looking- 8 presentation, 4 for taste.
The total damage was around $430 for 5, with 2 of the five having 2 courses.
When we went outside an
old panhandler descended upon us, and XXX gave him a buck,
and then couldn't find a second buck for the valet tip, so I gave him a
buck, thus paying the panhandler by proxy.
THE END.... |
